Priscilla Presley and 11 other bold-enough-faced names were named Monday to Dancing with the Stars' sixth-season lineup.

The programme, in which six male and six female celebrities are paired with professional dancers, regularly attracts more than 20 million viewers.

All making the dance card:

Howard Stern free-radio successor (and former Loveline and Man Show host)
Adam Carolla;
former CSI: Miami lab tech Cristián de la Fuente;
American Pie exchange student Shannon Elizabeth;1980s box-office force Steve Guttenberg;
R&B singer Mario ("Just a Friend");
Oscar winner Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God);
cape-eschewing magician Penn Jillette;
tennis legend Monica Seles;
Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor;
Tony winner Marissa Jaret Winokur (Hairspray); and
Olympic figure-skating champ Kristi Yamaguchi.

Eleven of the 12 pro dancers are vets of the show: two-time defending champ Julianne Hough, last seen hoisting the mirror ball with racer Helio Castroneves; two-time champ Cheryl Burke; Derek Hough; Anna Trebunskaya; Karina Smirnoff; Kym Johnson; Louis van Amstel; Jonathan Roberts; Edyta Sliwinska; Tony Dovolani; and Mark Ballas.


Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who took a second-place finish beside the Spice Girls' Mel B last fall, is sitting out the new season, which launches Mar. 17. But he told TV's Extra he'll be back next season.

"It's one of those things I need to attend to. My domestic studios and my students--their competitive careers," Chmerkovskiy said. "They [the producers] were kind enough to give me a break, and let me do it."

Filling the 12th and final pro dancer spot is Fabian Sanchez, a Dancing newcomer. Sanchez will be joined on his maiden voyage by Matlin.

The other dance teams include: de la Fuente and Burke; Elizabeth and Derek Hough; Guttenberg and Trebunskaya; Mario and Smirnoff; Jillette and Johnson; Presley and Van Amstel; Seles and Marie Osmond survivor Roberts; Taylor and Sliwinska; Winokur and Dovolani; and Yamaguchi and Ballas.

Julianne Hough will go for her third consecutive win alongside Carolla, the un-noted hoofer.

The show's casting net for stars yielded its usual mix of sports standouts (Seles, Taylor and Yamaguchi), familiar faces (Elizabeth, Guttenberg, Matlin, Jillette and Presley), a few folks you might need to Google (Mario, de la Fuente and Winokur) and at least one guy who you guess does the cha-cha-cha about as well as Tucker Carlson (Carolla).

The new lineup, though, does feature at least one innovation. For the first time since the gray-haired days of John O'Hurley, Dancing's elder statesman will be an elder stateswoman. At age 62, Presley, late of the King, Dallas and the Naked Gun movies, will be the oldest competitor. The 52-year-old Jillette is the only other dancer to fall outside the 18- to 49-year-old demographic.

Matlin will be Dancing's second resident Oscar winner after season-two's Tatum O'Neal. Winokur, Broadway's original Tracy Turnblad, is the show's first Tony winner, provided Jerry Springer doesn't have a deep, dark stage secret.

The show itself will sport one innovation: A double-elimination results episode on Mar. 24, featuring the expulsion of two dance teams.

No one said dancing with, or by, the stars was easy.


Source: www.epgold.com

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